The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument having a function of displaying approximate places where a player should position his or her hands and fingers to depress keys as an assistance in playing the musical instrument ("key-depression instructing display" function).
The present invention also relates to an electronic musical instrument which divides performance information into a plurality of sections (phrases) in accordance with its contents, and is applicable to electronic musical instruments such as one having a key-depression instructing display function, and automatic performance devices and other similar devices.
Electronic musical instruments have been known which have a function of automatically instructing a player about keys to be depressed as an assistance in playing the musical instrument (key-depression instructing display function). Such electronic musical instruments typically have light emitting diodes (LEDs) provided adjacent to the upper edges of the keyboard keys in corresponding relations thereto and, in accordance with the progression of performance, sequentially lights the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed, to thereby visually instruct what keys the player should depress.
Among the above-mentioned electronic musical instrument having the key-depression instructing display function, there are known one type which is designed to light only the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed now, and another type which is designed to collectively light the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed within a phrase (phrase-by-phrase LED lighting). Upon actual depression of a key by the player, these electronic musical instruments turn off the corresponding LED. A typical example of such electronic musical instruments is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. SHO 63-187525.
However, in the prior art electronic musical instrument which is designed to light only the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed now (key-by-key LED lighting type), it is necessary for the player to repeat operations, such as in a reflective action test, to quickly depress a key in response to lighting of a corresponding LED. Such performance operations would inevitably result in a sporadic, scattered performance, and therefore a natural, smooth performance could not be attained.
On the other hand, the electronic musical instrument which is designed to collectively light the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed within a phrase (phrase-by-phrase LED lighting type) has the advantage that the player can recognize approximate places where the player should position his or her hands and fingers to depress the keys more easily than the key-by-key LED lighting type. But, with the instrument of the phrase-by-phrase LED lighting type, it is necessary that performance information to be utilized should be previously divided into phrases with particular data indicative of boundaries between the phrases. Thus, in the case of performance information undivided into phrases, the LEDs can not be lit on a phrase-by-phrase basis, so that it is necessary for the player or user to read out the performance information to divide it into phrases in advance.
Further, because of such an arrangement that the LEDs are turned off in response to actual depression of the LED-instructed keys, the player's eyes tend to unconsciously follow the turned-off LEDs, which would make it rather difficult for the player to accurately recognize the key-depression instruction by the LEDs.
In addition, because the LED displaying states are changed phrase by phrase, the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed are collectively lit in response to each phrase change, and thus the key-depression instructing display immediately after the phrase change would be difficult to recognize.